Las Vegas airport scores poorly for on-time flights

McCarran International Airport had the seventh-worst rate of flight delays and cancellations among 35 North American airports in December, a company that tracks on-time performance reported.

Portland, Ore.-based FlightStats said McCarran had a 65.8 percent on-time rate with 11.8 percent of its departures classified as “excessively late,” leaving at least 45 minutes after the scheduled time.

While McCarran rarely has delays relating to Southern Nevada’s weather, it often experiences delays relating to storms in other locations that result in late arrivals and, in turn, late departures.

The worst on-time performance for the month was recorded by Chicago’s Midway Airport, which had a rate of 45.7 percent. The best performance was at Honolulu International Airport, with a 92.9 percent on-time rate.

FlightStats based its McCarran rating based on tracking 13,500 flights. The airport routinely has 431 round-trip flights a day.

In December, FlightStats said 14 percent of McCarran’s flights left late (15-30 minutes), 8.3 percent were classified “very late” (30-45 minutes) and 0.7 percent of flights were canceled.

Among airlines, Las Vegas-based Allegiant Air had the second-best on-time performance among 35 North American airlines for December, with 87.3 percent of its flights leaving within 15 minutes of their scheduled departure times.

Hawaiian Airlines posted the best on-time performance; the worst was Porter Airlines, a small Canadian carrier.

A FlightStats spokeswoman said Allegiant has the advantage of operating most of its flights in fair-weather locations and at airports that aren’t crowded.